Could Wasting Food Soon Be a Crime?

Massachusetts just became the founding member of a national clean plate club. Starting this month, the state’s first-in-the-nation ban on commercial food waste goes into effect for institutions that produce more than 1 ton of food waste per week. No longer can hospital leftovers or half-eaten school lunch pizzas go to landfill in the Bay State. To meet the challenge, organizations are sending their food off to be composted, or more creatively, to anaerobic digestion plants. These are essentially giant man-made stomachs where bacteria break down food waste, and the byproduct gasses can be used for energy.